A hockey official from Kuopio, Finland skated onto NHL ice for the first time this month and made history doing it. Onni Hautamäki worked his NHL debut as a linesperson on October 13, which happened to fall on his 31st birthday, becoming the first Finnish official ever to work a game in the league. He did it in Detroit, wearing number 62, as the Red Wings hosted the New Jersey Devils at Little Caesars Arena.
The game itself delivered drama worthy of the occasion. New Jersey beat Detroit 5-4 in overtime, according to mtvuutiset.fi, giving Hautamäki a fittingly chaotic first night on the job. The milestone was also confirmed by nhl.com, which reported that Hautamäki became the NHL's first-ever Finnish official that evening. Per is.fi, his name appeared in the official game sheet as Hautamaeki, wearing the number 62 jersey.
Hautamäki celebrated his birthday the way a traveling official might: at dinner with fellow officials following the Detroit debut, according to reporting from The Athletic. Reflecting on the moment, Hautamäki said it was “such an unbelievable honor to go on the ice with an official NHL crest on my jersey,” per The Athletic's account. He kept his read on the night simple, too, telling the outlet, “so far, so good.”
From Kuopio Rinks to NHL Ice
Hautamäki's path to the NHL started not with ambition for the league but with the end of his own playing career. Born and raised in Kuopio, he played junior hockey until he was 16, according to the NHL Officials Association, before joining a local referee club and beginning to officiate junior games himself.
That decision set off a steady climb through Finnish hockey. He spent three years working in Mestis, Finland's second-tier league, before being promoted to Liiga, the country's top circuit, where he officiated for seven years, the NHL Officials Association notes. Along the way he racked up 357 Liiga games and 130 Mestis contests, plus appearances in the CHL, AHL and various international championships, according to the same nhl.com report that confirmed his historic debut. Twice, he won the Pentti Isotalo Award as Liiga's best linesperson.
The Athletic reported that Al Kimmel, the NHL's director of officiating scouting and development, first noticed Hautamäki at the 2023 World Junior Championships — years before the Finn would ever set foot on NHL ice.
An Olympic Audition and a December Trial Run
Hautamäki's bid for the NHL picked up steam with a brief but telling audition north of the border. In December 2025, he traveled to Canada for a week and officiated five AHL games, the NHL Officials Association reports — a stretch that, per The Athletic, included one game in Laval, Quebec, two in Belleville, Ontario, and two in Toronto, designed to assess his adjustment to North American play and officiating standards.
Then came the Olympics. Hautamäki worked games at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games, and Sportsnet reported that he officiated five contests in Milan before landing what the outlet called a “holy-grail assignment”: the men's gold-medal game between the United States and Canada. His performance there did not go unnoticed. Nhl.com reported that his convincing work on Olympic ice ultimately led to an NHL contract offer that summer.
By September, the move was official. Scoutingtherefs.com reported that the NHL hired Hautamäki as a part-time linesperson for the 2026-27 season, alongside referees Nick Isaacson, Austin Rook and Hayden Verbeek and fellow linesperson Chris Martenet. The site reported he is slated to work 40 games in the NHL and 40 in the AHL this season, with the NHL itself putting his first-year NHL workload at around 40 games, according to The Athletic.
Joining a Short List of European Officials
Hautamäki's hire places him in rare company. European-trained officials rarely advance to the NHL, The Athletic noted, and nhl.com reported that he is the league's fourth European-trained official, following Russia's Evgeny Romasko, Czechia's Libor Suchanek and Sweden's Marcus Vinnerborg. Scoutingtherefs.com further noted he is only the second European-trained linesperson the NHL has hired, after Suchanek, who remains a full-time member of the NHL staff and worked alongside Hautamäki in his debut, according to The Athletic.
The trail runs back to 2010, when Vinnerborg became the NHL's first European-trained official, per the NHL Officials Association's alumni page, making his debut that November in Dallas. He went on to officiate 36 NHL regular-season games across two seasons while splitting time between the NHL and AHL, according to FloHockey — a career arc that looks similar to the one Hautamäki is attempting now. Romasko, meanwhile, arrived in North America in 2014 and logged four seasons there before returning to Russia, FloHockey reported, while is.fi described Suchanek as the NHL's first full-time European official.
Stephen Walkom, the NHL's director of officiating, identified Hautamäki's skating, athleticism and quick decision-making as particular strengths, The Athletic reported. Hautamäki, now based in Jersey City, will spend the season under the watch of NHL officiating managers who supervise officials at both the AHL and NHL levels throughout the year. For his part, Hautamäki has kept his read on the jump to North American hockey straightforward. “Hockey is hockey,” he said, according to The Athletic, adding that “you have to be ready for fast play” at the NHL level.
